Opening Bell: 4.13.15
Greece may have blown best hope of debt deal (Reuters)
Even if it survives the next three months teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Greece may have blown its best chance of a long-term debt deal by alienating its euro zone partners when it most needed their support. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' leftist-led government has so thoroughly shattered creditors' trust that solutions which might have been on offer a few weeks ago now seem out of reach.
Wells Fargo Warms Up To Risk (WSJ)
While many rivals retreat from risk amid regulatory pressures, the bank is expanding into a range of businesses a step removed from its long history as a Main Street lender. Among the initiatives: ramping up its investment-banking unit, bolstering trading assets and building up some overseas offices.
Herbalife Went Website Shopping, Bought BillAckmanLies.com (MoneyBeat)
The domain name is one of nearly three dozen website addresses that reference Mr. Ackman’s name purchased by Herbalife in January 2013, according to the public site domainnames.com. Along with billackmanlies.com, the company controls therealbillackman.com, ackmanlies.com, billackman.info and ackmanherbalife.com. The company owns several variations of the names in different domains like .net, .info and .biz. The Web addresses that include Herbalife such as ackmanherbalife.com, redirect users to the investor relations page of Herbalife. The other addresses are dead pages. According to public records, the domain names were extended in 2014 and expire in 2017
Blackstone’s Real Estate Muscle on Display in GE Deal (WSJ)
The New York private-equity firm has long been friendly to big deals, most notably the 2007 leveraged buyouts of Hilton Worldwide Holdings and Sam Zell’s Equity Office Properties Trust, the U.S.’s largest office landlord. But in recent years it has seen fundraising soar to the point where—before the GE deal—it had more than $28 billion in cash at its disposal to spend on real estate alone.
Bus Passenger Arrested For Battering Driver In Head With A Snickers Bar (TSG)
The Snickers--thrown by Joel Parker, 33--hit a Sunshine Bus Company employee in the head as he drove Wednesday morning through St. Johns County in northeastern Florida. According to a police report, Parker was disruptive and threatened the driver before reaching his stop. As he exited the bus, Parker winged the Snickers at the driver. The driver was not injured in the nougaty attack.
‘Dull work, flat pay and lousy colleagues’ (FT)
According to the survey, carried out between January and March by Options Group, a New York-based executive search and consulting firm, just one-fifth of participants said they were content with their job, their firm, their pay and their prospects. Half of the 100 people interviewed — in a range of mostly senior positions at banks, brokers and asset managers — said they were unhappy on all four fronts. “In an environment where pay and bonus pools are stagnant, brute politics and internal credit-stealing are ascendant,” said one anonymous investment banker, who works at a US bank in the UK and has about a dozen years’ experience. Other reasons cited for low job satisfaction included a proliferation of rules turning brokers into “utilities”, ultra-easy monetary policy causing “pathological prices”, and “greedy senior managers only interested in protecting their own privileges”.
Paul Singer’s hedge fund takes a dip (NYP)
Hedge fund mogul Paul Singer started off 2015 with a rare miss — the first quarter in almost three years that one of his hedge funds has been down and one of only 12 in his stellar 38-year run. Singer’s Elliott International hedge fund fell half a percentage point in the first three months. While Singer has made headlines for his decadelong battle with Argentina over defaulted debt, investors in his $25 billion firm, Elliott Management, know him best for stable returns. And the loss, however small, undercuts one of his chief selling points.
Germany’s Rising Wages Bode Well for Global Economy (WSJ)
German workers are getting a raise, which could give a bump to the rest of Europe—and eventually the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Take Off Friday and Monday Because Most Bond Traders Already Do (Bloomberg)
But the statistics suggest bond traders have gotten used to taking a long weekend that goes from Friday through Monday night. Average investment-grade trading has been the same this year on the first and last days of the week, with Friday actually being more active in the high-yield market, Barclays data show.
World's Largest Rice Krispie Treat: Wisconsin Students Attempt 7-1/2 Ton Cereal Bar (Reuters)
Defying the stereotype that Wisconsin is all about large blocks of cheese, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday set about creating the world's biggest Rice Krispies cereal treat at 7-1/2 tons. The team of about 30 students planned to work through the night to create the 15,000-pound dessert made by combining Rice Krispies cereal, marshmallows and butter that will be chopped up and sold to raise money for Wisconsin charities. The idea came to physics student Joe Tarnowski and two friends after they made a 15-pound Rice Krispies treat in their dorm. "We decided, why not scale it up?" he said.